Celebrating 3 Years Of Running: My Progress and Revelations

In a surprise to everyone and me in particular, I’m still a runner and still loving it! I went from despising running more than anything, to finishing a couch to 5K program twice and now I have been running regularly for 3 years straight. Absolutely ridiculous 🙂 . Continue reading “Celebrating 3 Years Of Running: My Progress and Revelations”

The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap

This month my Partner and I headed back to Montréal! We visited last summer for a month and loved it so much we wanted to come back and visit again for longer this year. So let’s see what I got up to during this month in Montréal, Canada!

Continue reading “The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap”

Slow Travel Review: San José, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida

So I mentioned in my monthly recaps while in Costa Rica all the reasons that I chose to move there for over 2 months, but one of those was because I was shocked at how affordable it was to get there.

I’ve worked out that my flights are usually $200 one-way anywhere in the US. I’m able to get those prices even for longer flights because I book early and I am able to plan my travels around when flight prices are lower. However, despite Costa Rica being way farther than any location in the US, it only cost me about $200 to get there.

Specifically I paid $201.78 on American Airlines to fly from Albany, NY to San José, Costa Rica and $232.34 to fly from San José to Austin, Texas on COPA Airlines to see the Solar Eclipse. Continue reading “Slow Travel Review: San José, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida”

Cronometer: The Best Free Food Tracking App

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have tracked my food intake for years. I love tracking things in general and find it really helpful to know and analyze what I put into my body.

I used to use MyFitnessPal (MFP) to track my food and was shocked to check my profile and see that I’ve been using them since 2012 – a whole 12 years ago. So we go way back 🙂 .

In 2012 I was very discerning about which free food tracking app I wanted to use. I downloaded a bunch of them and used them all to see which I preferred. I ended up choosing MFP because it was the most user friendly for me, and it seemed to have the largest database of food already in there so I didn’t have to input everything myself. Continue reading “Cronometer: The Best Free Food Tracking App”

Review: Greyhound/FlixBus – Albany, NY to Montréal, Canada

I’m here today with another travel saga for you. But first, I need to set the stage. In my retirement I’ve been chasing the sun. I prefer to go places that are 70 and sunny and move around the country and the world following that climate.

A few years ago I realized that even the Northeastern US was getting a bit too hot for me in the summer and I knew I never wanted to experience a hot as hell Georgia summer again if I could help it 🙂 . So I looked for another destination. Enter: Montréal, Canada 🙂 . Continue reading “Review: Greyhound/FlixBus – Albany, NY to Montréal, Canada”

Cheers To 6 Years Of A Purple Life!

I’m still here! It’s been 6 years since I took this blog public, which is 50% longer than I’ve ever held one job and this is by far my longest running hobby. In that time, I’ve published a post at least every Tuesday. I never thought I would be able to keep up that kind of consistency despite everything life can throw at us. So let’s celebrate!

Continue reading “Cheers To 6 Years Of A Purple Life!”

The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap

Time seriously needs to slow down because this is getting ridiculous 🙂 . 2024 is half over and I’m barely used to saying the year correctly. Oh well 🙂 .

After a too wild April, I had a pretty relaxing May, which was much needed to recover from a social April and because June was going to be another (wonderfully) social month. So let’s see what I got up to!

Continue reading “The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap”

My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024

Let me set the stage. Back when I was a woman in my 20s living in NYC who was basically throwing cash out the window, I owned a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15s.

After several years, they started to break down and the sound wasn’t fully working so I wanted to replace them, but this was after I was fully into financial independence and balked at the $300 USD price tag. I suspected that I could find similar features for much less money. Continue reading “My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024”